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Current Word Count: 28,124/50,000

We're half way there! Take a deep breath, do some stretches and hunker in. It's all downhill from here. Hopefully...

We haven't done a good job of planning ahead, as I had hoped we would. But I'm very impressed with myself for actually getting the writing in everyday. I've been doing at least 1667 per day, no matter how stressed or tired I've been, I've sat down and gotten the words done. Most days I've done more than 1667, so I've built up a nice little word bank I can use if I can't get to my writing one day. I expect that to come in handy as we come up on the holidays next week.

I had been worried about the traditional half-way point plot twist, and Daniel and I had played around with a few ideas but nothing seemed to fit right for the story we'd laid out so far. Daniel ended up coming up with the idea that finally clicked. Jack and Frank have been side-by-side the entire novel and their whole lives, so the twist was obvious. They had to split up. I just got to that point and will have to see where we go next, but it's injected some new life into the writing, as I've found the half-way twist usually does. Thanks goodness for co-writing or I'd probably keep stumbling through until the end.

I've seen a lot of people on twitter this month, complaining about NaNo. That you shouldn't be forcing yourself to write everyday. That the quality of writing should be more important than word count. That you shouldn't force yourself to write if you don't have anything to say. To these people, I say, OH PLEASE. It's a challenge. It's meant to force yourself to write everyday. What first draft is high-quality? None. If you think your first draft is the best it can get, you're lying to yourself. Get the words out on paper, get in the habit of writing everyday, sort out the garbage later. That's NaNoWriMo.

How is your NaNoWriMo novel going? Have you reached your half-way point? What twists have you added in?

Sarah Foil

Sarah is a writer, editor & media manager located in North Carolina. She has an MFA in Fiction with a passion for the fantastic. Her blog is a place for writers, readers, coffee drinkers & dog lovers. Posts made Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Her services as a writer, editor, & media manager are available.

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